Carmen Sandiego: The Untold Story
by bookbug87
Summary: Origins of Carmen Sandiego
1. Chapter 1

The photograph was a bit brown in color and faded. It had a stain in one corner and seemed a bit chewed at another. I took a closer look at the subject: two young girls, one with blonde pigtails and one with brown stood in front of a rather chunky set of parents. All four were beaming at the camera as if the sun had just come out for the first time. The grass was half-mowed, the house an understated gray.

"Give that back, ACME scum." I looked up to see a seriously annoyed woman wearing her trademark red fedora and trench coat.

"Why?"

"Because it's _mine_." She snatched it easily out of my hand. I hadn't had any intention of keeping it. Mostly because something about one of those girls had seemed familiar. And now I knew what it was.

"Wait . . . that's your family?! You have parents and a sister?!"

She just looked at me, gave me an inscrutable smile, and did what Carmen Sandiego did best - disappeared. I just stood there watching as she disappeared into the helicopter. _At least I foiled her from taking something_ I tried to reason, knowing full well the Chief would never forgive me for letting her slip from my grasp like that. But I could not move for a full five minutes.

Carmen Sandiego had a family (or, at least, had _had_ a family). She was a real human being. Theoretically, I knew perfectly well that she was. She must get sick, eat, use the bathroom, and have hangnails just like the rest of us. But when your job is to hunt down the most elusive spy in all of history, who eluded capture by any government, and who was infamous for doing it while standing out like a sore thumb in her red fedora, the spy you're trying to hunt gains a sort of legendary status. Nobody at ACME talked about Carmen with anything less than the utmost respect (and sometimes fear).

I shook my head and turned back around. My little motorcycle I had used to get to the London Bridge was waiting. And there was a little card lying on the seat. I picked it up and had to read it out loud to believe it.

 _ACME agent scum,  
Next up will be a trip to the Hollywood of Asia. The game is afoot.  
Carmen  
P.S. If you'd like to keep your job and your life, you won't mention the photo to anyone. _

I laughed and said, "Ohh, Carmen. Yes, the game is afoot indeed."


	2. Chapter 2

Three weeks later, after a fruitless search in Egypt, I was sitting in the San Francisco ACME headquarters when the Chief came in. "How did it go?"

"Great. Just peachy. I still have sand in my socks and sunburns in three different places. Oh, and no sign of our red-hatted woman."

"She'll pop up again. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried. But I do wonder . . ."

"About what?"

"Was Carmen Sandiego always her name?"

The Chief looked surprised. "For as long as I knew her it was. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. But . . . she must have come from somewhere. Maybe even had a family." I watched the Chief's reaction closely. If the Chief knew something, it wasn't showing.

"I really have no idea. I never thought about it. She came in highly recommended with all the security clearances . . . I didn't think a background check was necessary."

"Like I said, it was nothing."

Just then, the mailman came in. He tossed a letter at me. "Looks like the game is back in town!" He said, with a grin. I looked at him funny and opened the letter. It simply read:

 _I'll be traveling the only moving National Monument all day before I steal it. Hope to see you there! Carmen._

"Well, looks as if she gave me something to go on after all," I said, looking at the Chief. The Chief nodded. "Go to it."

I walked out of ACME office, trying to decide how on earth I was going to find Carmen Sandiego on the trolley cars. I shrugged. Carmen Sandiego could find _me_ if she were so inclined.

Again, I came back to ACME a bit motion sick from the hills but no sight of Carmen. "No luck again? Don't worry about it Gumshoe. Here. One of her henchmen Ivan Idea _is_ in town. Carmen will send a note when she's ready."

"Another wild goose chase?"

"Maybe. Depends on how badly she wants –" The Chief was cut off by a courier. He handed The Chief a card and said, "We found this by the conductor's lever. It almost stopped the trolley by getting wedged in the gears."

The Chief grabbed the note and read out loud, "I'm in the only European city where you can walk or crawl through every foot of the sewer system – I'll be waiting in the museum. C.S." The Chief looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Do you know where she's talking about, Gumshoe?"

"Uhh . . . London?"

"No."

"Rome?"

"Strike two."

"Paris?"

"Yes, very good! Go ahead and get on the next plane there."

"But Ivan Idea is actually _here_."

"Gumshoe, have you ever heard the phrase that if you cut off the head, the whole snake dies? The most important goal of ACME is to catch Carmen Sandiego. If we even have a hope of doing that, if there's so much as a hope of a date where she's only tempting you into a trap, we have to go. If we catch her, two-bit crooks like Ivan Idea won't be an issue."

"How am _I_ supposed to catch her? ACME operatives have been trying for . . . how long now? People smarter, more experienced than me have chased her down to the ends of the earth before."

"Gumshoe, why did you join ACME if you're not going to chase Carmen? You could've just joined the FBI or the CIA and saved yourself a lot of trouble."

Before I could answer, another courier came running in, holding a newspaper. "She did it again! She stole the top of the Eiffel tower!"

"Did you hear that, Gumshoe? Grab the next flight to Paris! Stop by your desk first – there's some new field equipment for agents."


End file.
